Strange things happening in my dahlias

hvander(5B ON)September 8, 2009

Hi,

Perhaps some one can shed light on this! I have 2 issues occuring in my dahlias. The first is that the center bud on some of the plants, i.e. the bud that should be the one that blooms, seems to self-abort and the side buds will branch and bloom on a very short branch. The leaves and stem are slightly yellow. The result is a very small, stunted, and unusable stem. I know that some bugs can cause a malformation of the flower but this appears to be something very different.

The other issue is that I have plants that appear to have spider mite but no spiders can be found. The leaves are gnarled, they have 'rust' spots and the stems appear brownish. However, the flower is completely unaffected.

Henry, aphids can carry a virus that will result in stunted plants and curled leaves you may want to check along that avenue. yellowing leaves and stems can result from many different things too much water, too little fertilizer, poor soil conditions. but if they were my dalhias i would investigate the aphids/virus relationship. hope that will help